Sewage irradiation

N 14.15% a deep blue solid, liq, or gas. The color of the liq is described as that of a coned ammoniacal Cu soln (Ref 2). The odor is described as earthy or similar to sewage sludge (Ref 2). Mp -196.6°, bp -84° (Refs 1 2) CA Registry No 334-99-6 Preparation. It was first isolated as a by-prod from the fluorination of Ag cyanide. Its formation was attributed to the presence of Ag nitrate or Ag oxide in the tech grade Ag cyanide used (Ref 2). The first prepn in good yield was by the irradiation in a sealed tube of a mixt of nitric oxide and trifluoromethyl iodide plus a small amt of Hg with the light from a Hg vapor lamp, yield 75% (Ref 3). 

To make sewage sludge compatible with plant life in an environmentally friendly way and also to make it usable as a safe soil conditioner, it is desirable to convert it into living humus by aerobic composting. Irradiation of sludge cake and subsequent composting have revealed the following (see Kawakami et al., 1981) ... 

The "certified organic label on a food means that the producers of the food followed these rules they did not use any synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers to grow crops or feed for animals they did not use crops or feed that had been genetically modified, fertilized with sewage sludge, or irradiated they did not feed animals the byproducts of other animals they gave animals access to the outdoors and treated them humanely and they were inspected to make sure they followed the rules in letter and in spirit. 

In the United States and Canada even biologically pretreated municipal waste waters (secondary sewage effluents) are usually UV disinfected by passing through huge irradiation channels before they are drained into the surface water and released into natural cycles. It has been shown that UV irradiation is a power-... 

Organic production specifically prohibits certain practices, such as the use of biosolids, or sewage sludge, due to concerns about bacterial and heavy metal contamination. Irradiated products also are prohibited because irradiated elements do not occur in nature. Examples of products used in organic crop production are described in the Examples from the Field on page 10. 

High energy radiation such as X-rays can be applied to suspensions as a pretreatment to kill pathogens, provide stabilisation and sometimes improve filtration rates, particularly for sewage sludges. The little work that has been done, however, suggests that the economics of irradiation are marginal and for many suspensions there are no measurable benefits of exposure to radiation. 

Neutron activation analysis is one of the major techniques for the determination of many minor and trace elements in a large variety of solid environmental and pollution samples, such as atmospheric aerosols, particulate emissions, fly ash, coal, incineration ash, and sewage sludge. Instrumental neutron activation analysis of total, inhal-able, or respirable airborne particulate matter collected on a cellulose or membrane filter, or in a cascade impactor on some organic substrate, allows the determination of up to 45 elements by an irradiation - counting scheme similar to the one given in Figure 3. Radiochemical NAA is applied only when extremely low limits of determination are required. Instrumental photon activation analysis is also complementary to INAA. 

No releases to or from the unit other than sanitary sewage are documented. In addition, this unit is near the 116-N-2 radioactive chemical waste treatment and storage facility where tanker trucks were loaded with irradiated, neutralized decontamination solutions from 1968 until 1972. The close proximity of the units suggests that the possibility of contamination from small releases during tanker loading may exist here. 

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